


carved in bone and tooth and eyes and flesh

by Rethira



Category: Dishonored (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2015-03-08
Packaged: 2018-03-16 23:52:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3507305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rethira/pseuds/Rethira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the black eyed boy has no parents has no family. threw him out the other rats say, didn’t want no black eyed boy to haunt and curse them. threw him out <i>five six</i> times, and still he came back, eyes so black black black black</p>
            </blockquote>





	carved in bone and tooth and eyes and flesh

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [выточенный в кости и зубе и глазу и плоти](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5121443) by [Lalli](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lalli/pseuds/Lalli)



> i tagged this major character death because people do technically die but they don't exactly cease to exist
> 
> this was originally posted [here](http://kratosaurioned.tumblr.com/post/113083559585/carved-in-bone-and-tooth-and-eyes-and-flesh)
> 
> there have been some minor edits made to this version

the black eyed boy lurks in the docks. he wraps skins and fur over his shoulders and blinks _one two_ at those who pass him by, and there are many who pass by the black eyed boy, unwilling or unwanting to meet his black black eyes

the black eyed boy is drowned sometimes. the other gutter rats take him down to water’s edge and shove his head under _hold it three four_ until he don’t come up no more. the black eyed boy can hold his breath until he’s dead dead dead

the black eyed boy has no parents has no family. threw him out the other rats say, didn’t want no black eyed boy to haunt and curse them. threw him out _five six_ times, and still he came back, eyes so black black black black

the black eyed boy is no thief is no urchin is no nothing. the black eyed boy is a curse. the black eyed boy is aged and ageless, he was born _seven eight_ years past, or was it more. the black eyed boy is always near, always close, down near the sea always watching watching

the black eyed boy is back and forth and here and gone. watching counting hiding seeking the gutter rats are scared of him scared when he counts _nine ten_ and off they run to hide again

the black eyed boy drowns for real once. the other gutter rats run and scream from his floating bloated body, and it twists and turns and shapes and reshapes and burns bright bright black black and is gone

 

he comes into his other shape in bits and pieces. first, a tail to slip through the water. then, a fin so he can swim, and another to keep him balanced. next, great eyes so he can see in the deep dark depths. he grows bigger in fits and starts with each new sight he sees. it feels like everything is overflowing him, all this knowledge in his head, so he has to get bigger bigger bigger until he can contain it all

and as he gets bigger, more of the old parts fall away, until he is _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss at the edge of the old sailor’s nightmares

only then does he learn to slip into that other place. or perhaps it is more right to say that only then does that other place slip into him - some days, when he is close to before, his size astounds him. his mind from before is so very awed by _size_ \- it asks, how did we become so large, how did we grow to this, but the answer is so boring that he never answers

his great eyes, made for seeing in the deep dark depths, now peer through into that other place and he can see-

the shift from _here_ to _there_ is easy. he shifts minutely, and _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss is gone from _here_ and is now _there_. so it is that _here_ becomes _there_ and _there_ becomes _here_ , and _there_ is shaking now, trembling with his loss, shaking because _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss was lost to it now, and _there_ was built and shaped and meant to hold that _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss

_here_ he can grow yet further, no longer hampered by sea or continent or creature or man. _here_ he is sizeless and immense, stretched to fill everything it all, _here_ he is beyond _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss, _here_ he is

the void

_here_ , he becomes the black eyed boy again

 

the void is not eternity and he is not eternity. there is an ending for the black eyed boy. it is distant, but present, and he feels some excitement for it. endings are always fascinating, and his own end can be no different

in the meantime, he turns his eyes - black eyed and great, built for seeing in the deep dark depths - out from the void, out from himself, and he watches

there is so much to watch

eventually, he reaches out - a pale skinned hand and a fin so he can swim - and a person cries out and clutches their hand in response, a mark burnt onto their skin. they do not come into the void, do not come into him, but they pass through occasionally, briefly, and it feels like- he does not have a name for it, but it feels and that is enough

the next one, he speaks to. he speaks in his old voice and the voice of _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss, and they scream and clutch their ears and it is too much too much too much the black eyed boy who died died died and his eyes were black black black too much too much too much

he whispers to the third, in only his old voice, softly. they sob into the darkness still and hiss _go away go away go away_ as they try to carve his mark off their flesh

he stays silent for the fourth, silent for the fifth, and by the sixth they call him _outsider_ and he does not object. he does not object because he is the void and the void is _here_ and they are _there_ and he must be outside because he can look in but perhaps, perhaps they are inside- perhaps the void is a cradle and they are all inside of him

he agrees with the seventh when they call him outsider, and they do not scream or cry or beg, and they worship him and call him _god_ and _husband_ and _lover_ and he is none of these but _outsider_

he chooses fewer. for a time, he turns away completely - when he looks back, there are children in the oceans, children of _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss and they carry part of the void, part of him in their very bones and teeth and eyes and flesh and the people who named him take the children of _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss and carve out those parts of the void that won’t rot in the sun

they carve his mark on whalebone and whaletooth and into whaleflesh and he feels it all on his body that is _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss and he feels it all in the void that he is and he does not have a name for this feeling but it is binding and it is felt and it is enough

 

they have their own names. they are not descriptions like _outsider_ or _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss, but they are tattered scraps of letters, carved into minds and paper and history, shaping a world around them

he addresses them by name and they delight - fight and struggle and love and delight. they slip into and out of the void, into and out of him, and they _are_

the black eyed boy considers loving them

_leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss considers keeping them

but in the time it takes to consider - they are gone

all things end, even the black eyed boy, even the void, even _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss

but they are still gone and ended, and their fight and struggle and love and delight is gone as well. gone and forgotten, in the time it takes for him to blink, and yet more croon _outsider outsider outsider_ and carve into him again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again

he slows. he slows and slows and slows and slows until he’s crawling along so slowly everything is so slow everything is slow and quiet and easy

they last so much longer now. his delighted and delightful chosen - they stay and stay and stay until he can almost forget they will be gone until they _are_ and by then perhaps he was growing bored anyway time for someone new time for several someones new time for

the whalebone carved for him doesn’t break easily. _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss feels it when it does, feels a shuddering _snap_ and then nothing where before there had blazed life and light and whalebone

it begins to happen more and more. snap snap snap snap snap snap snap, _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss thrashes in the void that is him it feels- he has no word for this feeling but it is and it will be and there are still voices raised to him, voices that praise him husband lover and god, _outsider_ , but there are other voices raising too and the whales sing, they sing in the deep they sing for him they are calling and-

he shifts minutely and _here_ is _there_ as _there_ is _here_ and all the voices, those delighted and those sorrowful and all those in between, for a moment they all rise together because _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss has not touched _here_ in so long that _here_ has forgotten his shape, has forgotten him

the waters rise in time with the voices, and then they are all snuffed out

the whales sing

_leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss shifts again, and still the whales sing

 

he becomes the black eyed boy again. like this, he can touch the other world. like this, he the void can enter _there_ , can exist without-

_leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss must sleep for now. _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss must lie buried in its deep darkness, its great and yawning abyss. _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss must sleep

the black eyed boy _outsider_ will speak now, with a new old voice, and he will choose those few who delight most, those few who fight and struggle and love and delight, those very very few

the people call to him quieter now. there is something new rising in his old place and he doesn’t want to watch it grow. he moves faster again, fast enough to miss things - people, places, plagues and cities, and sometimes his old whalebones wash up on new shores and are carved with his name and touched reverentially and he is husband lover god and _outsider_ again

an empire rises. it is not the first

he slows again - the time for ending is nearing. he can see it when he looks, when he looks with his great eyes meant for seeing in the deep dark depths

the black eyed boy looks instead, and finds

vera daud delilah

he reaches for them - vera calls him black eyed boy, my star eyed boy, my void eyed love my lover, husband, god

daud calls him black eyed bastard, _outsider_ , useless and useful in the same breath and never learns to trust him, always always fighting hated and loved loved and hated

delilah calls him god and worship, _outsider_ , a means to an end and names herself lucky and witch and they are each, each they delight they delight so much they delight each other and him and

there is corvo

the whales sing the whales die and there is corvo

corvo calls him nothing and smiles with his shadowed eyes, hidden behind a mask the black eyed boy had made for him. he comes to the void, comes to him more than any other - delilah and daud slip in and out, slip in and it feels- he has no word for how it feels but it feels

corvo is welcome. corvo is fascinating. corvo is like and unlike, calls him nothing at all but demands his attention, wears his whalebones heavy on his chest, ties whaletooth around his neck and rips an empire down-raises an empire up

vera daud delilah corvo

his four. his four who name and unname him, whose names he carves into his bones, into _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss, into the void itself

his time will end but theirs will not. daud traps delilah, binds her inside the void for now and for ever, and vera traps herself, binds herself with memories and futures and cuts out her eyes so he might see and daud- corvo traps daud, not with blade or knife or bow or death, corvo traps him with forgiveness and kindness and daud will try to carve the void from himself, daud will try to leave, but the black eyed boy, the void will keep him

for corvo, the black eyed boy goes himself

names himself _outsider_ , names corvo _fascinating_ because he is, this quiet man who unnames him and watches him, who believes and unbelieves, who carries his empire on gentle shoulders, who fights and struggles and loves and delights

for corvo, the black eyed boy goes himself

 

older than the rocks this place was built on. drowned in a sea that no longer exists. born in a place long forgotten, and reborn in the depths of an ocean never heard of

he has felt and feels his whales, carved and broken, his chosen in and out of the void, but he has not _felt_ with the black eyed boy’s hands, has not _felt_ at all

corvo unnames him and brushes a hand down his cheek and his voice echoes _soft and gentle_ and he wonders how he has felt and not felt for all this time

corvo touches again and again and the void bleeds into him, bleeds with him. his blood splashes whale oil blue on the cobbles on the carpet in the silence in the crowd and other voices call him heretic and prophet, blasphemer and most holy and he is nothing and no-one and everything and everyone all at once

he touches corvo next, carves runes into corvo’s bones and teeth and eyes and flesh, makes him _here_ and _there_ at once, void and not void all the same and it’s not enough and too much, not enough and too much, he must touch again, he cannot go without touching

the black eyed boy walks the empire, trailing in the wake of the man in shadows, the crow in stolen finery, the empress’ loved and beloved, the _outsider’s_ husband lover and god

his time is ending. his time is ending and the black eyed boy, _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss, the void itself he must end but he must not, for to end would be-

to end would be _nothingness_ and emptiness, and he must end for everything must end but he must not because to end would be unthinkable, to end and leave and be left behind, to be dead and buried and gone and forgotten, he cannot do that

the black eyed boy who drowned and drowned and drowned again, the black eyed boy is afraid

he breathes in time with corvo. feels in time with corvo. bleeds and lives and dies in time with corvo, and every death is felt again again again, snap snap snap

corvo’s end is carved onto the bones of _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss

the black eyed boy’s end, _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss, _leviathan’s_ end is carved onto corvo’s bones

everything must end

but he feels - he, the outsider, the black eyed boy, _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss, the void itself - he feels as if he has just begun

"i" he says, "i" he says and means it, i, me, myself and "i do not want to end"

corvo touches him again. corvo who is more void than before, more _leviathan_ , the deep darkness, the great and yawning abyss than before, corvo who is nothing and no-one and everything and everyone, corvo touches him again, brushes their lips together in a not-mockery of a kiss and it is-

 

he is everything and everyone and nothing and no-one and he keeps _one two_ _three four five_ in his grasp, four with names, one his own, and one unnamed and not alone

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[podfic] carved in bone and tooth and eyes and flesh](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6673267) by [Kess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kess/pseuds/Kess)




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